Air heating apparatus



my 3, 93@ H, M JERQME 1,965,102

AIR HEATING` APPARATUS Filed Jan. 18. 1933 G if* b K Y f FIG 2 g-I- /NVENTO/ MQ/LLMIM (wir F n@ 3 @om MEM Patented July 3, 1934 UNITD STATES PTET FFECE AIR HEATXNG APPARATUS Ann Arbor, Mich.

Application January 18, 1933, Serial No. 652,286

4 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved form of heating apparatus, and has for its object an improved organization or" parts designed and adapted to extract the maximum possible number of 5 heat units from the products of combustion before these latter are irrevocably and heat-wastingly liberated through a chimney or stack leading to the outside atmosphere. It has nothing to do with the aiding or inuencing of the combustion process as such, but rather with the handling of the gases generated therefrom, whether the fuel be solid or liquid, and after the gases of combustion have started on their way from the immediate vicinity of their generation, toward their ultimate escape outlet.

To this end this invention in its preferred form comprises the organization of parts herein shown, having to do with the extraction of the maximum possible number of heat units in the products o combustion, both by the rerouting thereof from their normal escape channel and by the provision of special heat-convection elements appurtenant the walls, within which these initially hot gases are coniined, or through which they are being guided toward ultimate escape to the atmosphere. While the invention is particularly directed to the heating of air by the means and in the manner to be described, it will of course be understood that in place of air heating, the heating of another gas could be thereby eiiected.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a perspective or" the important and salient parts of my improved apparatus, with a portion oi the wall broken away to bring out their relative interior arrangement.

Figure 2 is a side elevational view largely in section, in other words, taken lengthwise of the apparatus as a whole.

Figure 3 is a sectional plan view taken along the line 3 3 of Figure 2, and looking in the direction of the arrows there shown.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention herein illustrated, A represents an outer shell or chamber adapted to be connected, as at B, with a source of combustion products which may be communicated thereto from a relatively distant source through a pipe, as suggested in dotted lines at C, or through the medium of a fuel burnerterminal positioned actually in the throat of the aperture B. This inlet aperture B projects not only through the walls of the outer chamber A, but as well through the wall of the interior chamber D, some of whose details. including its preferred method of support within the chamber' A and the heat-unit-extracting results thereby obtained, will be dealt with in a later paragraph hereof.

This inner chamber D is spaced at its ends from the walls of the outer chamber A by iue elements -E which open at their top and bottom ends rspectively into the spaces within the outer chamber A respectively above and below the inner chamber D. Cool air inlet holes, as F, are positioned in the bottom portion of the outer chamber walls and hot air outlets G are located in its top wall.

Spacedly arranged about the side walls of the inner chamber or shell D are a series of fins J, the outer edges of selected ones of which are connected with struts or wall pieces K, the outer ends or edges of which are in turn secured to the inner face or" the outer chamber A so as to effect the desired support of the inner chamber D in the spaced relation to the outer chamber which is shown. If, in addition to their function as supporting members for the inner chamber, it be desired that these struts or supports K be made to serve as partitions or space-dividing elements for the otherwise unoccupied space within the inner chamber traversed by them, they may be made of such width as to extend fully thereacross, thus cooperatively with the inner chamber and its projecting fins, dividing the upper and lower spaces within the outer chamber A into a plurality of heat-distribution chambers as X, Y, and Z, so that the radiated heat from the walls of the inner chamber will be equably distributed and restricted in its range of heating inuence. Indeed such struts or wall pieces as separate elements might be omitted entirely, in favor of ns of suitably diverse length or radial extent, some of which would reach completely from one chamber wall to another, while others, suitably alternated therewith in arrangement, would extend only a part of the distance between the chamber walls, as shown in Figure 3.

As already stated the heat units, however developed, are introduced into the inner chamber D through the aperture B, or developed in its immediate vicinity. W'ithin the inner chamber D are positioned a pair of baiiles or shelves, as M and N, each of which is of lesser length than the inner dimensions of the chamber D, and each of which is terminally supported therewithin at an opposite end of the chamber D from its companion baille, thus making the course of any products of combustion through the inner chamber D a sinuous one, since the only normally open escape aperture from the chamber D is the iiue outlet L which is located at the very bottom of the inner chamber D, and preferably at the opposite end thereof from the inlet aperture B. Two such baies are shown in the drawing, but it is of course to be understood that a larger number, similarly functioning and positioned relatively to one another could be employed if desired. In any event, the only possible path of travel of the combustion products through the chamber D is a sinuous and downward one, which is of such relative length that a correspondingly large proportion of the surface of the inner chamber D is eX- posed to the heating influence of the passing stream of combustion products before these pass out through the flue L.

Whatever absorption of heat units by the walls of the inner chamber thus takes place is increased and distributed throughout the otherwise unoccupied spaces within the outer chamber A by the action of the ins J which project thereinto, preferably several of them into each of the chambers X, Y, and Z already described. Since the initially cool air entering through the air inlets F of the outer chamber A must traverse either the flues E or some one of the iin-occupied chambers X, Y, or Z before reaching the escape openings G at the top an unusual proportion of heat units are resultantly absorbed by the walls of the inner chamber D and its iins J, and in turn transmitted to the initially cool air whose heating is desired, and which is passing through the outer chamber A as a whole, from the lower air aperture F to the upper outlet vents G.

In order to keep the approaches to the flue outet L adequately clear of soot and other precipitated combustion products provision is made for convenient access thereto through the medium of the aperture P which is located generally on the level of the lowermost space unit of the inner chamber D which is generally on a level with and substantially in line with the inner end of the flue 'outlet L. Similar access apertures may, if desired, be provided through the walls of the inner and outer chambers just above the levels of the baiile or shelf members.

It will thus be seen that this construction affords in effect a suspended heat conduit of unusual degree oi elongation proportionate to its cubic measurements, spacedly suspended within an outer air-transmitting chamber in such a way as to aiord a maximum of heat absorptive opportunities to which the presence of the iins about the outer surface of the inner chamber and of the chambering partition and supporting elements H materially add to. And it will also be obvious that although the down-draft arrangement of the parts relating particularly to the inner chamber D is of superior advantage as regards the extraction of as many heat units as possible from the products of combustion, it would be entirely possible to position the combustion products inlet near the bottom of the inner chamber and the flue outlet, corresponding in function to the ilue L near the top of the chamber. Similarly with the aid of a fan or equivalent pneumatic apparatus the entering cool air could be introduced within the outer chamber A at the top, and its withdrawal, when heated, effected through apertures at or near the bottom of said chamber; in other words, in such case the parts G shown in Figures l and 2 would be the air inlet and the 'heated air would emerge from the chamber A through the outlet apertures F.

What is claimed is:

l. In a heating apparatus, the combination, with an outer housing, of a chamber for guiding the travel of combustion products, with inlet and outlet passages located at relatively remote points in the walls thereof, a plurality of bale members supported from opposite ends of said combustion products chamber in such positions relatively to one another as to force gases passing therethrough from the inlet passage to the outlet passage to traverse a sinuous course, heat-conducting ns arranged in spaced relation about the outer surface of the walls of said combustion products chamber, and means connected with the outer edges of certain of said fins whereby said combustion chamber and its connected parts are supported in spaced relation to said outer housing, whereby the interchange of heat units between the several parts traversed by combustion gases is facilitated.

2. In a heating apparatus, in combination with an external shell provided with ilue openings, an internal shell provided with gas inlet and outlet apertures registering with selected ones of the flue openings in the outer shell, a plurality of baffle members spacedly positioned within said intei-nal shell, whereby the possible path of travel of gases therethrough is rendered sinuous, a plurality of spacedly located fin members forming cooperatively with the wall of the internal shell a series of partially enclosed pockets about the outer periphery of said internal shell, and means adapted for attachment to certain of said fins and to the interior surface of the external shell whereby the internal shell and its associated parts are supported in desired spaced relation within and with respect to the external shell.

3. In a heating apparatus, in combination with an exterior shell member provided with inlet and outlet ilue apertures, an interior shell member provided with apertures adapted to register with certain ofthe flue apertures in the exterior shell member, baille members spacedly positioned within said interior shell member, whereby, in cooperation with the walls of and apertures in said member, there is constituted a sinuous downwardly-directed path for the gases of combustion introduced thereinto, a plurality of nn elements spacedly positioned about the periphery of said interior shell member, whereby a plurality of open-ended air pockets is created immediately about those portions of the outer wall surface of said inner shell, and means structurally associated with the outer edges of certain of said iin members and with the exterior shell member whereby said inner shell member and its associated parts are held in spaced relation to the latter.

4. In a heating apparatus, the combination of an outer shell provided with flue inlet and outlet aperture-s, an inner shell having apertures which register with certain of those in the outer shell, a series of fins spacedly positioned relatively to one another about the exterior of said inner shell and cooperatively with the walls thereof forming a plurality of heat distributing chambers, means connecting the outer edges of certain of said ns with the wall of the outer shell whereby the inner shell and its attached parts is supported in desired spaced position within said outer shell thereby constituting cooperatively with the outer shell a chamber into which said fins project, and horizontally disposed baffle members interposed between the inlet and outlet apertures in said inner shell, whereby the possible path of travel of the products of combustion therethrough is rendered sinuous.

. CAROLY'N M. JEROME, Admim'stmtri of the Estate of Horace M. J eromc,

Deceased. 

